6-Gap Users Guide

A DESCRIPTION OF THE RIDE The course consists of an "approach" from Dahlonega followed by six climbs with some rolling hills between the gaps. Each climb culminates at a "gap", or mountain pass. The climb is named for the gap. There are refreshment stops at each gap and an extra one about half way up Hogpen (gap 4). (There may be more, but you won't need them.) The approach is rolling, with some very sharp (but short) hills. It's roughly comparable to a loop around the Havana Hills race course in Gadsden county. You want to be very careful with your energy on these first few miles. It is easy to get caught up in the moment and push hard enough to effectively ruin the rest of the ride before you even get to the first climb. Forget the group - ride your own pace and get warmed up. You absolutely have to ride your own ride on the climbs anyway. Keep in mind: a ride like 6-gap is more about energy management than anything else. You have only so much, and you're going to need a lot of it on the latter part of the ride.

Gap 1: Neels This is a seven mile climb of moderate grade. Use it to get your legs and CV system running well and to get the feel of what it's like to go up hill for an hour. Watch your energy output rate (preferably with a heart rate monitor) and keep it moderate. There will be plenty of opportunity to push harder later in the ride, should you find the workout inadequate. The descent from Neels is fast but straight enough to be relatively safe, with good pavement. (For the 3-gap folks, the left turn to Wolfpen Gap is easy to fly by if you are not looking for it.) 

Gap 2: Jacks After some fairly good Havana-hills-like rolling terrain, this climb goes for about 3 miles at a moderate+ grade. This is where you get the experience of making a long climb that is not the first long climb... The descent from Jacks is long and moderate - let it fly. Beautiful scenery and lots of free miles on this one. It takes you all the way to the start of the climb to Unicoi Gap, no hilly stuff in between: just descend and start the next climb.

Gap 3: Unicoi Unicoi is about 3 miles of moderate++ climbing. The main problem with Unicoi is that it is unshaded and can be very hot facing into the sun. The descent from Unicoi is great. While the climb is relatively short, the descent is over 10 miles all the way into Helen. The grade is steep enough to be fun, but the pavement is good and the curves are well banked so again this is not particularly dangerous. There may be a lot of traffic, the only "down side". But the roadway is wide enough to accommodate autos and bikes in most places. Stay aware of the traffic behind you. At 1445 ft above sea level, Helen is the lowest elevation on 6-gap, thus explaining why the descent is so long. (Dahlonega is 1880 ft.) And you WILL pay a price... 

Gap 4: Hogpen This is the big one. Seven miles at a steep grade, averaging around 7% but with some sections well above that. There are also a couple of false summits. There's a rest stop at mile 4, with 3 to go. (The mile markers on the highway actually correspond to miles on this climb.) Try to skip the intermediate rest stop. If the weather is hot, though, you may need to just get some fluid here. The descent from Hogpen is dangerous. It is very steep. There are sharp blind curves at the end of steep strait sections. The pavement is bad: old chip-seal, broken in places, and loose gravel possible anywhere. The road is narrow, and the camber of the turns is not adequate. The grade is such that speeds in excess of 50 mph are possible just using gravity. Someone said that if you don't brake, you won't flat: well, tell that to all the people who have flatted on, say, our St Marks Trail. You can also come up on wildlife, potholes, stopped leaf peepers, wet roadway, loose gravel, pavement cracks, hickory nuts, crashed motorcycles, motorcycles ascending in your lane, and any number of other hazards that require a very rapid change of plans. Bad stuff CAN happen. I have personally seen everything in my list above on the 6-gap course. It is unwise to descend at a speed that allows for no margin of correction. It is also unwise to brake too much, especially to ride the brakes. You want to avoid heat buildup in your rims - eventually, this will cause a blowout by melting your tube. (If you have plastic rim strips, failure will occur at a much lower temperature. Change to cloth rim tape before 6-gap.) And keep in mind: the heavier you are, the faster gravity will accelerate you and the more heat you will put into your rims when you slow down. There's no simple recipe here, just make sure you control your speed to something that gives you some wiggle room in case of unexpected events. 

Gap 5: Wolfpen The second toughest climb on 6-gap. About 2.5 miles (depending on where you define the beginning) with grades on par with Hogpen. The roadway is shady, however, which is great if the weather is hot. (It's been known to sleet up here, if the weather is wet.) The Wolfpen descent is twisty but on good pavement with good camber to the curves, so not too dangerous. It is often damp, though. Stay out of the paint.

Gap 6: Woody The descent from Wolfpen takes you only down to Suches, home of the highest elevation school in Georgia. Consequently the climb up Woody is a paltry 1.5 miles of moderate grade. From the top of Woody it's a 15+/- mile descent of mild grade all the way back to Dahlonega. Try to have enough energy left to enjoy it.

HOW TO SIMULATE A CLIMB IN FLORIDA IMO: The only way to get a feel for climbing in Tallahassee is on a flat road. We do not have seven mile hills. Hills around here are great for building climbing strength and technique, but they can't give you a feeling for the long sustained effort required for the climbs in the mountains. Here is how to "feel" the climb to Neels Gap: On a 20 mile stretch of relatively flat road, assume a climbing position on your bike (hands on the top of the bar, loose grip, elbows out, chest open, head up) and start a 20 mile time trial. Using your heart rate monitor, maintain a steady heart rate at a sustainable level for the entire 20 miles. Let's say 85% of your maximum sustainable effort. OK, that's Neels. Hog Pen: 30 miles at 90% Wolf Pen: 15 miles at 90% Etc. The entire 6-gap effort can be simulated by riding about 130 miles in Florida, making long sustained efforts of appropriate length. (Except, this simulation is harder on your butt than 6-gap, and it's a lot less fun. Plus, there's essentially no way to simulate the descents.)

ADVICE

• It's all about energy management.
• Stop at the top just long enough to get supplies. Rest on the bike going downhill.
• Be prepared for weather. I guarantee there will be some.
• You can't have too low gears. Take all you have.

DISCLAIMER Descending is never safe. Any time you are going 30+ mph in traffic there is danger to be assessed and managed. 

Fall 2008 Update The pavement is deteriorating. The Hogpen descent is still gravelly, acorny, potholy. There is at least one significant hole on the Wolfpen descent that is almost impossible to see in sunny weather due to the mottled shaddows of trees on the road. The return from Woody has been changed: from Stone Pile you now take a right. Instead of continuing a nice descent all the way to the finish, this new route has some very sharp hills. It is also more scenic. For me, at mile 90, the most beutiful thing in the world is a downhill, and in this sense the new route is much less so. Don't run over the old guys...

Commuting Chonicles 4

Commute to Gym and Grocery

Depart home heading east on Lakeshore Drive. Take the short cut left turn on Springdale - becomes Lexington - to Meridian Rd. Left on Meridian for one short and relatively safe block to a right turn onto Cloverdale. Left on Deer Lane, right on Audubon, left on Woodley Drive to Timberlane Rd. Right on Timberlane for short blocks (down and then up) to left on Martin Hurst Road. This takes you the back way to Maclay Blvd and on to Premier Fitness. Plenty of parking - the bike rack is almost always empty at the fitness center.

After a spirited (if light weight) workout, unlock and head around to Fresh Market. Today, for example, I picked up the weeks supply of apples, some Gruyere, a couple of other things. This all fits into the Performance Grocery Pannier. I lock to a tree in front of the store, on a parking lot island. Can't find a bike rack there, but the tree works fine as long as nobody complains.

Then reverse to home. Total miles: 12

Notes:

1. Hint for grocery baggers: My wife Kathy has got me using those 99 cent reusable bags that are the shape of a paper grocery sack. One thing is, they often have no solid bottom. Your old aluminum auto tag fits perfectly! It makes a nice hard bottom for the cloth bag. That in turn fits perfectly into the Performance grocery pannier. A great use for that old share-the-road you hung up in the workshop.


2. Even though this route touches Meridian and Timberlane, it seems pretty safe to me. The distances on those two roads are very short. I use a mirror and off-road capable tires.

MiniTip 1 [Urban Riding]

When a vehicle approaches from a side street or driveway: immediately check your back. If a vehicle is in your lane behind you, the driveway driver will probably see it and wait. This gives you some cover, but also no room to dodge, so remain vigilant. If there is no vehicle immediately behind you, take the lane by moving yourself into the middle of the lane. This serves two important purposes. It brings you into the attention zone of the driver of the side vehicle, and it gives you more room to react if the side vehicle lurches forward.

A driveway/side street vehicle driver is highly motivated to get past the traffic menace in your street: to merge to his right in your direction of travel, or (more dangerous) to cross the entire street, or (worst of all) to make a left turn. This driver is usually very focussed on traffic in the lanes and looking for a gap to shoot. This driver may have his finger on the trigger and have it almost squeezed off. This driver can easily miss seeing you, especially if you are not out there in the traffic lanes (the attention zone). This is one of the main reasons that riding on the sidewalk is more dangerous than riding on the roadway.

Be careful out there.

Poor Man's Compact Crank

I noticed a few months, in Leonard Zinn's Velo News column, that FSA is offering a range of aftermarket chainrings for 130mm and 110mm bolt circle diameters. These got a good review from the big guy. They are CNC machined and heat treated in the modern style, with all the extra ramps and pins that make them shift as well as those that come on new 9- and 10- speed cranks.

I googled up a place to order and have now obtained and installed on my classic DA crank: 38 tooth inner, 50 tooth outer. (38 is the smallest you can fit to the 130mm bolt pattern.) This has changed my bike a lot more than I would have thought. Here're some impressions:
The change from 53/39 to 50/38 is very noticeable and pleasant. The 50 tooth bigring is much better for me in our local terrain. With 53/39, I often found myself in a "between" state, with slight changes in speed needing a double shift. With the 50/38 I can stay in the bigring for a larger percentage of riding, I guess for me about 75% (up from something around 50% with the 53.) Basically, I only need to downshift to the small ring when a good hill looms. In the small ring, even 1 fewer teeth is noticeable, and makes those steepest hills a bit easier to climb.

I also like the closer ratio. Shifting from 50 to 38 seems more natural, with less of that "clunk" feel I get when dropping from 53 to 39.

I highly recommend the 50 bigring, especially. The only down side is that I spin out at about 35 instead of 40 (rough estimates). I deal with that problem by coasting once I can't peddle fast enough in the top gear.
The 50 bigring comes standard on the new compact cranks. These compacts often come with 34 tooth smallring. I think that's great for mountains, but for many people it is lower than they need around here. Again, you can go to FSA and get a 36 or 37 for that crank and have a less clunky front downshift and use the smallring more, saving chewing up the bigring with the chain angled too much.

Installing new chainrings is fairly simple, and it gives you a chance to get the crank clean for the first time since it left the showroom.

Just FYI, when you wear out the rings that came from the crank factory.

Clayton "Claytonius" Lacher

Born: "N Find Me" 4/20/97

Sire: Molotov

Dam: Dominatrix

Breeder: Seelke, Rt 1, Box 112B, Cleo Springs, OK 73729, 580-438-2470

Adopted from Sandy Davidson, 2015 Forrest Glen, 383-2500

January 17, 2008

I heard a cry of agony from his bed. He had tried to stand to follow me into another part of the house and his leg gave out - the femur simply ceased to stiffen his leg between hip and knee. He could not walk, would not lie down, and was in great stress. I phoned Kathy for help and our vet Dr Michelle to ask her to come to the car and examine him.

When Kathy got home we coaxed him, hobbling on three legs with the fourth dangling, to the car and lifted him in. I rode in back with him, supporting him as he still was afraid to lie down. He just panted and teetered on three legs, with me pressing him to the seat back so he wouldn't tumble. Dr M came to the car and the three of us managed to get him to lie down. It was his first moment of peace and calm in a couple of hours. He lay on his side with us holding and stroking him. We knew what was down the road, but tried not to show it to Clayton. For his part, trust was there, as it always had been. The vet could not really examine the leg, so she sedated him. He took the IV calmly, without fear, and drifted off to a sleep in one of his favorite places, the back of Kathy's CRV.

Once he was sound asleep Dr Michelle confirmed the broken femur. Given what we knew, there was no chance of a good heal of that bone, eaten away by cancer to the extent it had spontaneously failed. Clayton, awake with this broken leg, was unable to do anything without great stress and pain. To Kathy and me, it made no sense to wake him up to months of suffering toward an end that could not be good. Dr Michelle concurred. We asked her to put him deeper asleep, to the happy place beyond.

December 2007

In the months preceeding, Clayton had developed a worrying dry cough as well as a seemingly unrelated favoring and limping on his right rear leg. It was natural to think the latter was age-related hip issues, and the vet agreed. He was examined several times for the cough, with no findings. (No xrays were taken.)

During a Christmas visit to my Mom's in Athens, it became clear that Clayton's leg was getting worse. He could still run, like the wind (or rather a freight train - he weighed 92 lbs), but had a pronounced limp, a favoring of the leg when not "on". He also fell a couple of times getting in/out of Van Diesel. When we returned, his cough was also worse. On Jan 16, he had a very bad episode of coughing that resulted in a bloody discharge - the cough went from dry to bloody wet on that day.

We immediately went to Dr M who did a chest xray: a profusion of spots, believed to be secondary sites from metastatic bone cancer, was evident on the film. The leg was then xrayed, but the film was unreadable. We decided to let it go for the time being, since Clayton was under a lot of stress and we needed to get his coughing and lung distress under some control. We went home with a multiweek supply of steriods to ease the effects of cancer. He spent a relatively quiet night, but was uninterested in food. For Clayton, that was like Ray Baron refusing sex. The next day was Jan 17, 2008.

Blitz, Joey and Clayton

Our travel to England in the early 90s was the first step in raising our consciousness about greyhounds. Living a while in London, we decided to visit the Battersea Dog Home, a place that takes in dogs and commits to them - they are allowed to stay indefinitely, until on some lucky day they are adopted. We wanted to see this place, because we had no experience with that kind of humane treatment in the US. The home was an inspirational visit, and could be the subject of an entire essay.

We were struck by the greyhounds at Battersea. Firstly, there were so many. Perhaps more than half the dogs there were greyhounds. Secondly, their nature: without exception, they were quiet but expressive, staring at us with love and longing in the eyes, quite reminiscent of our beloved doberman Greta (who did not make the trip to England). I think we both made the decision, internalized, that when the time was right we would adopt a greyhound. It was heartbreaking to leave Battersea knowing the sadness and disappointment we left behind. But it was wonderful to know the commitment and dedication of the Dog Home for its residents.

The time did arrive, and we adopted our first greyhound, Blitz, from Katherine Crawford. Blitz had a good post-racing life with us, and he and I became inseparable friends. Blitz passed away at around 10 years of age, with bone cancer.

A few months after Blitz's passing, we visited Sitehound Rescue in Thomasville, GA, and found Josephine ("Joey"). Joey is a big girl, probably too big for racing, in any case she was diverted into the adoption track at a pre-race age where things didn't work too well for her. Perhaps she was initially adopted by someone who didn't understand the socialization process. In any case, she found herself back in the adoption system at SHR, and we found her there. Joey is quite shy and demure, but not fearful. A few weeks after adopting Joey, we were asked to take a look at a dog being foster-homed by Sandy Davidson. Sandy had Rotweilers and this greyhound didn't fit in all that well.

I took Joey with me to Sandy's place to see the big guy. Joey was large for a female greyhound, bigger than a lot of males, with fine bones and huge muscles. But Clayton towered over her! He was huge. He stood a full 8 inches taller than a typical Doberman, almost like a small great dane. He has large feet and fairly robust bones, which would have made him a step slow on the track. Joey was quite wary of the Rotweilers (although they showed no sign of aggression). Clayton immediately picked up on that and placed himself between her and the Rotties, where he remained for the entire visit. He did this without fanfare - a man holding a door for a lady.

We adopted Clayton from Sandy in November, 2001.

Life in Prison

Clayton came from a very deprived background (explained to me by Nancy). His race career did not last. He was competitive but a step slower than the winners, undoubtedly due to his higher bone mass. His adoption out of racing landed him with a veteranerian, who used him as a blood doner. For years, he was kept in a concrete floored chainlinked pen, without companionship of dog or human. This is exceptionally cruel for greyhounds, who are used to a very social environment. Clayton was used to provide blood transfusions for poodles and other clients of the vet. His only source of interaction and pleasure was meal time.

(Greyhound blood is 20% higher in red blood cells than other dog breeds, sort of naturally "doped". This has obvious benefits for a racing breed, and it makes their blood extra desirable for other dogs.)

That vet for whatever reason decided he/she no longer needed Clayton - so he dropped Clayton off anonymously in the Leon Co Animal Shelter after-hours drop box. Sandy noticed his arrival. He had horrible caloused growths on his elbows and knees from a life on concrete and was a bit looney from social deprivation. He craved food, likely because that is all he had to live for in the years of solitary confinement. Nancy fostered him out the day he was scheduled for euthanization. She cured his legs and started him back to socialization. What a wonderful thing to do.

Brothers


I have had the honor of sharing life with a number of dogs: Dachshunds (Waldi, Bruno, Figaro, Daisy, Ceasar), Fox Terrier, Beagle (Belle), Dobermans (Greta, Max, Porsche, Babe), Greyhounds (Blitz, Joey, Clayton), along with a few other creatures including cats, squirels, and birds. Clayton and I had a special bond, with some intangible extra consciousness between us that I can't adequately explain or describe. We were brothers in the sense of chosen, rather than born, to be so. That's Clayton and Babe on Mom's porch in Athens.

Hoo-Dah

During his life with us Clayton and I developed a special bond. We spoke to each other with body and facial language and tone of voice. He helped me invent a vehicle for my end of this communication. It began when I would arrive home and say "Who's 'da Dog" (or "who're 'da dogs" to them all). That evolved to "who 'da dogga" and further to just "hoo-dah", similar to the familiar "hoo-ahh" of army life. After a few weeks we had the term down. "Hoo-dah" became the word, and it meant almost everything important to say conversationally to loving dogs, the meaning conveyed by tone, volume, emphasis, and body language. A loud and exhuberant "hoo-dah" meant "Hello, I'm home and glad to see you!" and invariably resulted in a happy Clayton bounding to greet me. A quiet and contemplative "hoo-dah" meant "you are such a wonderful friend" and resulted in a tail wag and sometimes a loving tungue-touch on my hand. Until now, the one thing it has not meant was good by and farewell.

Hoo-dah, my friend.